APOLOGISE AAMIR!

Dear Mr. Amir Khah,
“NOT ALL DOCTORS ARE GREEDY”
“THERE IS NO PROFESSION THAT IS ABSOLUTELY CLEAN”
“DOCTORS ARE OBLIGED TO SERVE BY CHOICE, NOT BY COMPULSION”
Sir,
I have been a big fan or your work, life and principles. I am also a fan of
‘Satyamev Jayate’. But I was shocked to see the episode on 27th May,
2012. You are an Icon. You should have thought well and done the
homework before doing such a biased show. There are only two people in
the film industry that are being taken seriously by the thinking class of
society, You and Amitabh Bacchhan. So, when you give such a biased and
one sided version of a story, it hurts. Speaking about such a thing on a
“commercial” TV show is bad. (I am sure you have taken a big amount, only
doctor are supposed to do charity and social work, not actors!!! Right!)
I want to highlight few important points here. And yes I am qualified to
make observations as I am a medical student.
1. Your guests and audience (the words were almost put in their mouth)
said that private colleges charge a capitation fee of 40 – 50 Lacs for MBBS,
you should have also produced some evidence of such practice. Like you
call a victim in all your episodes, why not here? And do the same story
Engineering, Architecture, Law and MBA colleges, do you think they are
clean? Why target doctors alone?
2. You said Since 2001, government opened 31 medical colleges and 106
private institutes were opened. – Please note that today in India, there are
a total of 181 Private and 152 Govt Medical colleges. So the number is not
as bad s you projected. Don’t project only the time period which suits your
story. Either give a complete picture or do not give a picture at all!
And also, please find out how many of these private colleges are owned by
politicians? 95% of Private colleges in India are owned and run by
politicians. It is a bloody nexus between politicians and MCI. The corruption
by politicians is to blamed for the mess, not doctors!!!
3. One of your guest (Dr. Gulhati) said that doctors ask for 30%
commission from Pharma companies to write their drugs. That is baseless,
over-the-roof and sensationalizing the matter. That is as true as “Most
Leading actors ask newcomers to sleep with them” or “Lawyers take
money from both the sides in a legal battle” or “Most chartered
accountants teach their clients how to save tax and also pass info to
taxman on where his client saved tax”. I know all of you will shout “Where
is the proof?”. So are doctors!!!
I am not trying to sensationalize things as you did on your show by
shading those fake tears, but just trying to project that allegations are easy
to make. I know you will say that this was the opinion of our guest, and not
yours. But you provided a platform for these fake allegations.
4. You compared the numbers of Licenses cancelled in England and in
India. I must say your team is quite resourceful and please collect and
compare following details also –
a.Number of doctors beaten on duty by goons from various political outfits
in government hospitals in UK and India in last 10 years, and also the
number of people convicted for such crime.
b.The Stipend (Salary a post-graduate trainee doctor/intern gets) or Salary
and accommodation facilities provided to the doctors of the two countries.
c.The duty hours and working conditions of the doctors of the two
countries.
d.The academic and research infrastructure being provided to the medical
students.
5. You said that the most brilliant students who take up medicine, should
take it only for service to mankind, they should go to other fields if they
want to earn. Why? Are we living in imperialism? Are doctors not allowed to
earn and spend a good life? You were asking Dr. Devi Shetty whether he
can do humanitarian work and Earn at same time? This is like asking
Amirkhan or Shahrukh-khan their income and generalizing it for every actor
in the industry (Even junior artists). Sir, just as there are only few Khans
and Kapoors, There are even fewer Devi Shetty and Naresh Trehan who run
their chain of Multi-specialty hospitals spread all over the country. See
what it takes to become a doctor and then give such “Geeta-Gyan”.
a. 5 and half year of MBBS training and 1 more year of Compulsory Rural
Internship at Rs. 15000 - 20000 per month. (Any other field eg.
Engineering, Management, a person would become Postgraduate in this
much time and start earning double the amount.)
If one doesn’t study further, the pay at this step is 22,000 per month.
b. After above 6 and half years of Graduation, 3 more years of
Postgraduation, followed again by compulsory rural / Government job for 1
year or pay Rs. 25Lac bond.
If one doesn’t study further, the pay at this step is 40,000 per month.
c. After this above 10 and half years, 3 more years of Superspeciality,
followed by 1 year of Govt job or a Bond of Rs. 2 Crore.
And the seats are so few with tough competition, there tends to be a gap
of a year or two in preparing for various entrance exams.
6. Why only Doctors are being forced to work in rural and government
hospitals after their study? Why only we should pay government if we
don’t want to do it?
The rural/Govt sector needs help of Engineers, Lawyers, Chartered
Accountants and MBAs also.
Why aren’t the Engineers sent to rural areas to design and monitor roads
and industrials development?
Why aren’t the Lawyers forced to work as Public prosecutors before they
can join some big foreign corporate firm?
Why aren’t the CAs asked to work in CAG office and various other
government financial sectors before joining Multinational Giants?
Now government wants that doctors should not immigrate to other
countries without asking them. Why? Are the IIT/IIM students stopped
before they flee to foreign countries for big fat salaries? So, why us? What
is it that government of society has done for doctors that they should
repay? They bloody can’t even protect them from goons while on duty.
7. You say that doctors are writing unnecessary and costly medications. Do
we decide the price of a drug? Do we manufacture or give license to drug
manufacturers? Controlling the price of essential drugs is a government
job. We are helpless.
Sir, its easy to point fingers. We don’t say that all is well. But all is not well
anywhere. Its a different thing creating awareness about dowry or female
feticide. But its entirely different to comment on such a technical and
complicated issue without getting into the details of it.
You have maligned the entire medical fraternity. For every 10 doctors who
are doing wrong, there are more than 1000 healers. You owe us an
apology!!! This issue is not as simple as you think it is! Please show stories
which are unbiased and straight-forward. You cannot do justice to such an
issue, especially after charging a whooping amount for creating
awareness!!!
(We hear that Amir has charged 3 crores for episode of satyamevjayate in
which he spreads the message to doctors that they should not make
money and do social service!!! How sacred!!! I don’t know if its true, but
well, it’s the season of allegations!)
“We Doctors may be doing little social service, But at least we are not
charging for it!”

PILOT

Once Kapil Sibbal, Digvijay Singh & Chidambaram were in a helicopter, Sibbal drops a 100 Rs Note & says, ..."I made one poor Indian happy" Digvijay drops two 50 Rs "I made two poor Indians happy!" Chiddu drops 100 ONE Rupee coins "I made 100 poor indians happy!" Hearing this the PILOT laughs & says- "I will drop down All 3 of you and make '125 CRORE Indians' Forever Happy...!" Pilot was Anna Hazare

ANNA HAZARE

Mr Manmohan Singh, Please Answer!

LETTER OF THE EDITOR OF "THE TIMES OF INDIA " TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA

Dear Mr. Prime minister,


I am a typical mouse from Mumbai. In the local train compartment which has capacity of 100 persons, I travel with 500 more mice. Mouse at least squeaks, but we don't even do that.

Today I heard your speech, in which you said, 'NO BODY WOULD BE SPARED'. I would like to remind you that fourteen years have passed since serial bomb blasts in Mumbai took place. Dawood was the main conspirator. Till today he is not caught. All our Bollywood actors, our builders, our Gutka king keep meeting him, but your Government can not catch him. Reason is simple; all your ministers are hand in glove with him. If any attempt is made to catch him, everybody will be exposed. Your statement 'NOBODY WOULD BE SPARED' is nothing but a cruel joke on these unfortunate people of India .
Enough is enough. As such, after seeing terrorist attack carried out by about a dozen young boys, I realize that if same thing continues, days are not far away when terrorists will attack by air, destroy our nuclear reactors and there will be one more Hiroshima .
We the people are left with only one mantra. Womb to Bomb to Tomb. You promised Mumbaikar Shanghai; what you have given us is Jalianwala Baug.
Loyalty to Gandhi family is more important than blood of innocent people, isn't it?

I am born and brought up in Mumbai for last fifty eight years. Believe me, corruption inMaharashtra is worse than that in Bihar . Look at all the politicians, Sharad Pawar, Chagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, Bal Thackray , Gopinath Munde, Raj Thackray, Vilasrao Deshmukh all are rolling in money. Vilasrao Deshmukh is one of the worst Chief ministers I have seen.His only business is to increase the FSI every other day, make money and send it to Delhi, so Congress can fight next election.Now the clown has found new way and will increase FSI for fishermen, so they can build concrete houses right on sea shore. Next time terrorists can comfortably live in those houses, enjoy the beauty of the sea and then attack our Mumbai at their will.

Recently, I had to purchase a house in Mumbai. I met about two dozen builders. Everybody wanted about 30% in black. A common person like me knows this and with all your intelligent agency & CBI, you and your finance ministers are not aware of it. Where all the black money goes? To the underworld isn't it? Our politicians take help of these goondas to vacate people by force. I myself was victim of it. If you have time please come to me, I will tell you everything.

If this has been a land of fools, idiots, then I would not have ever cared to write to you this letter. Just see the tragedy. On one side we are reaching moon, people are so intelligent; and on the other side, you politicians have converted nectar into deadly poison. I am everything Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Schedule caste, OBC, Muslim OBC, Christian Schedule caste, and Creamy Schedule caste; only what I am not is INDIAN. You politicians have raped every part ofMother India by your policy of divide and rule.

Take example of our Former President Abdul Kalam. Such an intelligent person; such a fine human being. But you politician didn't even spare him and instead choose a worthless lady who had corruption charges and insignificant local polititian of Jalgaon WHO'S NAME ENTIRE COUNTRY HAD NOT HEARD BEFORE. Its simple logic your party just wanted a rubber stamp in the name of president. Imagine SHE IS SUPREME COMMANDAR OF INDIA'S THREE DEFENCE FORCES. what moral you will expect from our defence forces ? Your party along with opposition joined hands, because politicians feel they are supreme and there is no place for good person.


Dear Mr Prime minister, you are one of the most intelligent persons, a most learned person. Just wake up, be a real SARDAR. First and foremost, expose all selfish politicians. Ask Swiss banks to give names of all Indian account holders.Give reins of CBI to independent agency. Let them find wolves among us. There will be political upheaval, but that will be better than dance of death which we are witnessing every day. Just give us ambience where we can work honestly and without fear. Let there be rule of law. Everything else will be taken care of.
Choice is yours Mr. Prime Minister. Do you want to be lead by one person, or you want to lead the nation of 100 Crore people?


Prakash B. Bajaj

Editor Mumbai-Times of India

SHAME

Full page photo

WHAT I (as a common man) NEED FROM A POLITICIAN/PARTY

1. Frequent power cuts have been haunting the state and almost all parts of tamilnadu suffer power cuts, announced and unannounced, villages being the worst affected for more than 3 years. This is a result of the negligence of the previous governments to think ahead of time and take steps to increase power production. Even a kid in 5th standard could analyze and tell you that if the population increases the power consumption will also proportionately increase. I am not able to understand why this was not at all considered by the most intelligent rulers in the world, Tamil and has ever seen till date.

2. Healthcare is to be concentrated. I have worked for a year in government hospitals and that is the place where poor can get healthcare. The standard, cleanliness and the facilities in such hospitals are not on par with the private hospitals. Just visit a nearby government hospital and you will understand the situation within minutes.

Also the system of healthcare delivery should be regularized and implemented as that of in western countries modified according to our society. For example, like in the UK, the system of general practicioner, referring to specialist should be analyzed and implemented here also. We do not have any system to ensure that a doctor practicing is still competent and up to date in his field of practice.

3. Education needs to be regularized also. The government should supervise the state of all schools and colleges and striving to provide good quality of education whatever the stream of education it may be. The standards should be the same from Chennai to kanyakumari.What we see in reality is that we have schools, colleges with different standards. Teachers, Lecturers and all people involved in teaching should write a licensing examination every few years to prove their skills and knowledge. This should be done as we do not have any measurable standard for such profession of this date.

Educational institutions in all streams should be regularized also. The system should be very strict in inspecting and reevaluating the licenses for such institutions. Every 4 years the institutions must be analyzed and quality should be ensured.

4. Public transport systems should be strengthened. The private Omni bus owners should be kept under supervision to prevent charging very high price for tickets during festival times. There should be a board which should inspect the vehicles every 3 years and issue a license to operate. The present system of FC does not hold good. I have seen many buses and vehicles with a valid FC to be in so poor condition. The government should strive to see that all the cities and villages have well-developed public transport systems. It should be the same from Chennai to kanyakumari.

5. Auto rickshaws are an important means of transport and its effectiveness is curbed by the atrocities committed by auto drivers with respect to auto charges. There should be a system of Meter based price for encouraging the public to confidently travel in autos without fearing the prices. I have my own experience in Kerala. You can boldly hire an auto and be confident that you will have to pay only a nominal amount. You know what’s the result of such a system in autos there? The number of people using autos for transit is very high and it gives profit to the driver. You can never see any auto parked idle in auto stands for more than 20 minutes, as the nominal charges attract many people to use it. It is a criminal conspiracy to allow high fee atrocities by auto drivers in our state for all these years.

6. Computerization of all the departments to ensure transparency in administration. A few departments are already computerized but the pace of this process is very slow, may be because the politicians are afraid of”transparent “administration. There should be a facility in all departments to view and know the respective details online. Example, a person who has lodged a complaint with the police should be able to track the status of his complaint by using the FIR number and login id, password online! Such facility should be there in all the departments of government.

7. There is no regulatory body for checking the prices of food stuffs in Hotels, restaurants, coffee shops and as a result the prices of foodstuffs are on the rise without anybody to question such attitude of the food industry owners. I do not know if there is a regulatory authority for this, but it seems that it is the need of the hour. I have to pay Rs 10 for a cup of coffee at one place, and Rs 7 for the same in another place and Rs 5 in another in the same part of a locality.

8. It is unfair that anybody irrespective of his educational qualification can contest in elections. We can no longer accept the same old saying that politicians used” did kamaraj go to school? Didn’t he run a good government?” If that was true we should have seen many kamarajs. So we have to accept the fact that educational qualifications should be a must for contesting in elections. The basic qualification should be a full time postgraduate degree. Also there should be an entrance type examination testing the candidate’s attitude, aptitude, general knowledge, problem solving skills etc. in theory and in practice. This IS the need of the hour to see some quality in politics.

9. A biometric method of identification should be made mandatory for all people. It may be a form of identification using finger print/ retina scan but it should be the idea behind a concept like a social security number. There should be a day where only by using a biometric ID card that is valid, you can avail services. For example, to book a train ticket, you should just type the No of your biometric card, which will auto fill all your personal details required for the ticket. The ticket should be validated after confirming your request by providing your finger print online. The system should be giving you a ticket after matching the genuineness of your ID automatically.

You might think that this ID system will incur a lot of costs to the government but think of the amount in 2G scam….its 1lakh 76thousand crores. It should be understood that money is no more a problem in our country. Also if you look at the benefits, you may be surprised that this is worth an investment.

All the above that I have expressed above are the things I have experienced as a member of public in my day to day life. When there are umpteen numbers of things that could be done for the betterment of the state, all we hear in the election campaigns are about freebies……only. I can understand the attitude of politicians who think the public are beggars and just by throwing away a piece of bone we will be quite and they can continue the same corruption and the malpractices.

I am not blaming politicians as this type of freebie propaganda is boldly put forth by politicians only because WE allow it to happen. WE are responsible for such a situation. If only WE give an impression that freebies are not at all what we want, and then they will not, cannot continue propaganda of freebies. WE are responsible for such a poor politics in our state. WE can be happy, peaceful not with the freebies but with proper administration and futuristic plans to develop the state.

Free schemes are done using the people’s tax money. It is rubbish to boast about the free schemes as no politician spends from his own pocket for such schemes. It is like this: you work in an office and you had Rs 25000 in your purse. Your manager steals that money. You are shocked as to what to do for monthly expenses. There comes your manager who stole your money, talks to you nicely and gives you Rs5000/ as gift saying that it is to help you. He also boasts to the entire office that he helped you in your tough time. My good God, the manager is stealing your money and giving back a fragment of your money back to you and he makes propaganda about it.

It is the same story about the freebies that politicians promise every election. It is not the manager’s fault, but it is your fault that you allow this to happen.

If I am stupid, foolish enough to believe that the manager is helping me, then this will happen again and again.

Do we have to prove ourselves stupid? Do we have to prove that we are idiots? If yes then we need to consider only the freebies for selecting a candidate/party. No politician/party is to blame in this regard!

http://casualstrokes.wordpress.com/2011/04/03/freebie-politics/

KNOW HOW TO SPEAK!!

I had to buy some sweets and some snack items as I was leaving home to go to Chennai to see my wife. I went to a famous bakery in our town. It has a good history and the bakery has been there for more than 50 years. It was not that busy as it was a Sunday evening and I approached a person who was standing behind the stall where my favorite chocolate was displayed. I asked him to get me some chocolates. He gave a stare at me and was continuing what he was doing. I thought he did not hear me properly and repeated to him –“please pack some chocolates for me”

He did not reply a word, just again gave a look and continued simply packing some stuff. I again asked him to pack some chocolates. He looked at me again and did not speak a single word.Well I moved to the next person and got what I wanted.

This type of attitude, I think would have been faced by many of you.

When you ask somebody a question it is based on the fact that you acknowledge him as a fellow human being expecting a reply from him and that becomes a normal communication loop.

This strange behavior of this guy at the bakery, stirred in my mind, many thoughts. When I spoke to my friends, they also had similar experiences in places like shops, restaurants, the most frequent places being government offices.

It is a basic etiquette, simple manners to answer back when asked of something, or says “I don’t know “if you don’t know “about the subject being asked.

Even simple questions like “what time will the bus arrive or train arrive” have been unanswered.

Later on another day I went to a furniture shop with my mother in law to buy a couple of wooden tables. The way the person in that shop behaved was totally unacceptable. He was rude, was pressurizing us to buy something and go away fast, and was reluctant to show us different models. He was not at all interested in a thing called customer satisfaction. At one point I had to raise my voice and tell him,”Hey, look! I cannot buy what you want. I want to buy what I want. If you don’t like to show us different models and explain all the features, I think I don’t have to buy anything from you. I will also talk to your manager.” After expressing my anger only he was a behaving a bit OK.

Now what is the problem of that person in that shop? He is paid to help people select their furniture and if he is not ready to do that job either he should quit or the manager of that shop should regulate his behavior. I was surprised by such behavior of that guy whose salary is dependent on the sales.

The worst things could happen to you in government offices .I will announce Rs100/- cash price to anyone who walks away from a govt office with proper information. I can say with confidence that 90% of the govt offices and officers think that they are something above the normal human being status.

The same thing happens in enquiry centers also.

It happens in private centers also. I had been to Chennai silks at T Nagar, with my family members. They give you a card with which you can claim deductions from bill amount. We did not take that card and were simply paying the bill, did not even ask for a deduction. The in charge of that silk section, a gentleman in his 50s,with a spectacles came up to the billing counter walked to us and asked if we had that card. We replied that we forgot to bring that card. He replies “OH well! Great! You better keep that card in your home and do aarathys and perform pujas to that card with incense sticks. Huh!” telling this he walked away. We all were shocked and even the person at the billing counter was puzzled to see his behavior. I walked up to him and asked him if what he did and the way he spoke to us, being the in charge of the section was appropriate. Even after that he says” you should not take this as a mistake as it’s a friendly comment” I told him that I would never like to have such a friend.

The problem is that generally not knowing the way to communicate in a decent fashion. Only human beings can speak and if you can’t do that properly, what a waste!

Now this aspect is a thing that we, people, ourselves should think about and correct it. We cannot have laws to regulate the way you speak!

Why should a simple question and answer type communication be so hateful, so indecent, so irritating? Tiruvalluvar says that if you are speaking harsh words when you have got sweet words to speak, it is like eating a bitter unripe fruit, while you have a sweet ripe fruit.

We need to think seriously about this and each one of us, better we be hold on a minute before speaking and decide that whoever you have to come across, lets learn how to speak decent and do it that way.

WE IN THIS ASPECT SHOULD CHANGE OURSELVES!

Would we???